Regeneration

The sun is not yet up

I take my leave of the garden
who longs for tears from the sky
and the clothesline that always sighs.
I greet the lapwing’s cage from the neighbors
the dandelion, the battle
between black and red ants
the pajama of my youth, the hula-hoop.
I throw away every season and
remove rainbow from the dictionary.
I flee from the watered veranda, the oak tree
the pesky games of times past, the feel of alienation

from her, from him
but most of all from my mother.

I fall in the dew pond of
adulthood and drown.

From Esfahan, Hope Space by Nafiss Nia
Publishing House Bornmeer - The Netherland 2004
Translated from Dutch to English by Kate Huber